Height of fame
Tall twin rappers claw their way to the top with celeb selfies
Housing the operations of Howard Stern and Chris Russo, the SiriusXM studios at 48th Street and Sixth Avenue see their fair share of celebrity traffic. But the two guys who garner the most curious stares from passers-by — and even the celebrities themselves — aren’t exactly boldface names.
Standing outside the building in matching togs from their glasses to their sneakers, the 6foot-8 identical twins are Midtown curiosities.
Meet the aptly nicknamed Twin Towers: Mike and Kwame Grayson.
The 34-year-old brothers and selfstyled rappers are fixtures outside SiriusXM Radio’s Midtown digs. They spend their days in matching clothes hawking their five albums and jockeying to chat up their favorite celebrities.
“They call us the Twin Towers because we step onto the scene and overtake everything,” says Mike of their imposing and identical appearance. “We attract a lot of attention.”
They also have an agenda: snagging photos with stars to promote their music. They’ve taken pictures with everyone from Robert De Niro to Snoop Dogg, Denzel Washington to Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani to NFL Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin.
Their unorthodox marketing plan is paying off.
In the summer of 2015, the Bronx hip-hop artists performed on Ice T and Coco Austin’s talk show, “Ice & Coco.” Now they hope to catch the eye of the “king of all media.”
“Our goal is to take a classic photo with Howard Stern, with Howard holding our album, and to be interviewed on his show,” says Mike.
The brothers, who are single and unemployed, live with their mother in the Parkchester section of The Bronx and started rapping in the ’90s. Although they’ve had producers help on their tracks, it’s all mostly selfproduced “lyrical, old-school rap.” “We take instrumentals from artists that aren’t popular on the radio, and we put our own lyrics to it,” says Mike.
Talent runs in their family. Their half-brother, DJ Kay Slay, is a popular DJ with Hot 97 and Sirius, but he’s never interviewed them on the radio.
“Let’s be real. They are rapping in the 2000s like artists did in the ’ 80s and ’90s,” says Kay Slay. “People don’t like [their] music.”
He calls them “good kids” and encouraged them to play hoops or be celebrity photographers.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you stop trying to rap, which you’re not good at,’ ” Kay Slay says. “They’re good at getting up on celebrities.”
We step onto the scene and overtake everything. . — Mike Grayson of the Twin Towers rap duo